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The Tenor Saxophone |
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considerable variation within this school. Some of the soloists border at times on a rhythm and blues approach.*
Closely related to this group and interchangeable with its members in many respects are the members of a fifth school of tenor men who might best be described as "the audience getters". Almost all of them are capable of first-class mainstream jazz work, but all have found that by resorting to such tricks as the use of freak high notes, the relentless honking on a single note for an entire chorus, and the use of low notes with deliberately vulgar tonal effects, they have been able to achieve great popular success, either at the rowdier jazz events or in the circles variously known as rhythm and blues or rock and roll. Illinois Jacquet was the founding father of this school of musical delinquents. A fine musician himself, he was branded with the famous Flyin Home solo recorded with Lionel Hampton's band and some years later, at a series of jazz concerts, indulged in a manic succession of performances in which only the occasional ballads, played for contrast and relief, showed his true ability. Jacquet later renounced the extreme aspects of this style. Some of the other former jazz orchestra sidemen who have found greater success in rhythm and blues are Sam "The Man" Taylor (Cab Calloway, 1946-52); Al Sears (Duke Ellington, 1943-51);
*The principal "extrovert moderns" are Gene Ammons (Billy Eckstine 1944-7; Woody Herman, 1949; a bandleader himself since 1950); John Coltrane (Miles Davis, 1956-7); Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (Count Basie, 1952-3); Frank Foster (Basie since 1953); Paul Gonsalves (Duke Ellington since 1950), almost a twin for Ben Webster on slow tempi, but given to outbursts that verge on rhythm and blues on faster numbers; the pioneering Dexter Gordon (Lionel Hampton, 1940-3; Eckstine, 1944-6), who perhaps more than any of the others transferred the characteristics of bop to the tenor; the late Wardell Gray (Benny Goodman and Basie, 1948-51); Johnny Griffin, a Hampton alumnus much admired by the younger hoppers in Chicago and New York; Hank Mobley, another tenor equivalent of Parker, increasingly popular in the past year or two; J. R. Monterose, an East Coaster, whose full-blooded approach should preclude any danger of confusion with the West Coast's less aggressive Jack Montrose; Sonny Rollins, one of the most influential figures since Getz, fashioning his own work from a blend of Young, Parker and possibly Coleman Hawkins; Sonny Stitt, already discussed among the altos; and Frank Wess (Basie since 1953), something of an anomaly in that he could be placed just as appropriately in the first (Hawkins-derived) group, but betrays the impact of many years spent among modern stylists. |
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